Turning hogs into hot dogs

This article is the second in a trilogy about meat harvesting. The first, ‘No time for waste: technical development in meat harvesting’, discussed the state of the technology. This part describes the process itself with a focus on process optimisation, chain integration and an optimal balance between raw material, process and final product.

Where relevant, the information will be linked to the megatrends in the food industry: demographics, scarcity of resources, health and healthy ageing, environment, sustainability and technology. The final part of the trilogy will discuss the advantages of an integrated view on the production process from a food technological perspective.

Quality improvement

The introduction of the linear press meat harvester in the mid-1970s marked a revolution in meat processing. The relatively ‘low-pressure’ plunger allowed for a much higher quality residual meat than the then-widespread rotational press, which appeared to be more suitable for mass production and smaller, softer bone material, such as poultry. The linear technology also appeared less input-dependent and did not break the bones, thus leaving fewer occasional bone particles behind in the residual meat product.

For the first time in the production process of residual meat, a second path became available: that of quality production. For the consumer, this resulted in mechanically separated meat with properties close to that of deboned meat.

Nevertheless, our thinking about residual meat remained traditional for a long time, where ‘bones in, meat out’ seemed to be the slogan. Differentiation regarding raw material and meat quality in the past was virtually non-existent. On the input side, all bones were being processed simultaneously, without any distinction whatsoever in terms of bone quality. On the output side, this resulted in a rather average, uniform meat quality, which, although much higher than rotational press meat quality, was still far from its optimal value.

Tentative steps

It was not until the mid-1980s that a first, tentative shift in thinking of the meat industry took place towards differentiation and value upgrading of residual products. In the new millennium, the focus of the production process has turned to maximum output with consistently high meat quality levels. Even today, however, some opportunities remain unused. These opportunities could be taken advantage of with only a few changes in the approach of the meat-harvesting process.

Value upgrades for abattoir waste or by-products, such as bones, blood and pigs’ legs, are mostly performed by specialised companies rather than being common practice in the meat-processing industry. However, this situation cannot be sustained for much longer: even today, megatrends like healthy ageing, sustainability and emerging scarcity of resources require a thorough knowledge of by-products within the entire production chain.

Diversification and flexibility

Megatrends of the next decades will drive developments to diversify, capture and upgrade the value of by-products to great heights - and this will occur in the near future. Industry thinking will shift even further towards making full use of the animal and towards optimising product valorisation of all its parts. Likewise, the organisation of the production process cannot lag behind: our future lies in comprehensive diversification and extreme flexibility.

One existing diversification is achieved on the input end of the meat-harvesting process by classifying input bone material into either A-, B- or C-category bone for each animal type (pork, beef, lamb) according to the amount of residual meat present on the bone after deboning. If these different quality streams are separated during the production process, producers can offer tailored quality, volume and pricing.

Further optimisation of meat production can be achieved by specifying the final product and adapting the other process variables such as press time and pressure. Here, it is important to adjust the type of bone to the desired meat quality as well as to the final product in which the residual meat will be processed.

Unfortunately, the option of separating bones according to quality is not yet used by all residual meat producers, leading to suboptimal value creation. Selecting the correct bone quality (A/B/C) on the input side may, for example, prevent the use of ‘remedial’ additives to combat quality defects at a later stage of the production process. A highly competitive global food market, in which scarcity of raw materials and resources will play an increasingly large role, will force producers of MSM (mechanically separated meat) to be highly rational and calculating about the input available to them from the very first steps of the process.

On the output end of the process, added value can be created from the by-products, provided they are no longer regarded and treated as waste products. In particular, bones can be upgraded after meat separation since they are a valuable source of marrow, collagen and phosphates for the medical, pharmaceutical and feed industries. Emerging global phosphate shortages in the near future may make phosphate extraction more than just an economic opportunity; it will become a moral obligation as well.

Besides diversification on both the input and the output end of the production chain, there is also a growing need for flexibility in the production process. While many producers today still opt for a model of uniformity and mass production (such as for export), production to customer specifications will gain ground in the future. Thus, producers of residual meat will no longer get away with offering only one, uniform quality to an almost unchanging customer base.

Another form of flexibility is driven by the globalisation of the meat and raw materials markets. To survive and flourish in a globalised market, producers of residual meat will have to produce more market-specific product, carefully taking into account volatilities such as daily prices and demand volumes. This then requires in-depth and high-quality knowledge in the fields of market analysis, technology and optimisation - knowledge that needs to be available on a daily basis.

Chain integration

The current lack of knowledge and attention on the part of many residual meat producers and the existing decoupling between the links in the chain may be an impediment to radical diversification and flexibility. To many meat producers, producing residual meat is not a core activity, leading to broken links with the final product in some cases. The future, however, is in full chain integration, for a number of pressing reasons.

First, chain integration promotes economies of scale which are simply unattainable to scattered, individual producers. Fine-tuning between the links in the chain will lead to major savings. Moreover, meat might currently be subject to no less than nine transfers from slaughterhouse to shop, with only four steps necessary for optimal value creation. Companies integrating separate parts of the chain thus realise huge, necessary savings in process costs, transportation costs and refrigeration costs, among others.

Besides enabling substantial savings, chain integration has the potential to be the answer to society’s loud call for sustainability. First of all, yield per animal (in this instance, pork) can increase by as much as 4% through the use of modern process technology. This brings the industry one step closer to fulfilling its moral duty to feed the population and make optimal use of resources. Moreover, once the production process from hog to hot dog includes fewer steps, the result will be lower transportation costs and thus fewer additives in the product - yet another vital contribution to overall sustainability.

For the very same reasons, chain integration is beneficial for public health: meat passing faster through fewer hands is safer meat. Thus, chain integration may play a large part in reducing the risk of future food crises. Since healthy and safe meat is the market demand for the future, chain integration and full traceability of every step in the production process should go hand in hand.

Conclusion

Thanks to the rationality of the market, the globalisation of trade and the increasingly heavy moral duty of sustainability, our industry is rapidly embracing the values of the old-fashioned, home-slaughtering farmer: hard work and frugality come naturally, there is no such thing as waste and in-house equals in control. Not much has changed really, except for the scale: we are now feeding the world. The potential is abundant, provided we start thinking in terms of sustainable chains spanning the entire production process, all the way from hog to hot dog.

*Jan Meerdink is a specialist in meat harvesting and deboning with Marel.